It's still a surprise. You never expect the next link to have a picture of a man who once played basketball at your alma mater emerging from a lake, naked and surrounded by cops.

If I had to pick one Ellerbe-era Michigan basketball player who would end up emerging naked from a lake surrounded by cops it would be Tractor Traylor—who is an exception to the "never expect naked lake emergence from" rule—but Ingerson would probably be second. He epitomized Ellerbe's weird focus on players who had obvious emotional problems. Ingerson was the sort of uncoachable nightmare who would launch a three the instant he crossed half court, get benched for it, and do the exact same thing the next time he got in the game. If you're being nice you might term him an "enigmatic sophomore," as the Wolverine Blog does, but there wasn't much enigma there. He was just a guy who thought a 20% chance at three points was a good gamble and could not be dissuaded.

Ingerson was the epitome of a bad risk on Michigan's part, a mistake one that Ellerbe repeated two or three times a recruiting class. Remember Kevin Gaines? Maurice Searight? Avery Queen? Michigan loaded their roster with naked lake guys in the Ellerbe era; program and player invariably failed each other. If it was one guy here or there that would be understandable. It's the frequency and lack of success that made the late-era Fisher and any-era Ellerbe tenure so loathsome. Even when your problem children turn out to be pretty good basketball players they were often Traylor and Taylor sorts who were hard to root for, to say the least.

The obvious comparison given hoopla over the past couple weeks is Demar Dorsey and possibly Justin Feagin. Since no one got to see Feagin do much more than run an Incredibly Surprising Quarterback Draw or four, it's hard to draw a comparison to the Ellerbe guys who Michigan fans got to be frustrated at over the course of a season, but he's a guy who showed up and promptly exited due to mutual failure.

It's in the numbers here. Michigan signed Demar Dorsey but they also signed Courtney Avery and a bunch of other guys who have shiny grade point averages and letters from Stanford. This Super Bowl featured Saints starting center Jonathan Goodwin, a starter around these parts several years ago who got into serious trouble for robbing a K-Mart and made it okay. It's about outcomes. Brian Ellerbe's were miserable. Under his guidance, the Michigan basketball program seemed like a misbegotten halfway house where troubled basketball players could come, make no effort at developing on or off the court, and spend a year of dorm luxury before that lack of care caught up to them.

That picture above says that Michigan deserved everything they got during their long period of basketball wilderness, not because of Ed Martin but because of Fisher and Taylor and Ellerbe and the list of guys from the mid-90s who could be in that shot, wondering how to keep his privates private when the cuffs go on.

What does Avery Queen have to do with anything? AND NO I DO NOT REMEMBER HIM THANK YOU GOOD DAY! Was he talented but troubled? I figured he just sucked and maybe he was troubled also but I never saw talented.

Seriously, I always wondered why Avery Queen was ever on the Michigan basketball team. Can someone help me out?

When I was at the University of Kansas a football player (a defensive tackle, I think) drove through a Taco Bell drive-through drunk and, when they shorted him a chalupa, became enraged and tried to force his way through the drive-through window. He ended up stuck like Winnie the Pooh.

Despite the disappointing on-the-field performances this year, I never want to go back to that era of UM sports. Say what you want about TA and Beilein, there have only been two off-the-court incidents with Michigan hoops (domestic incidents with Bernard Robinson in 2003? and Daniel Horton's suspension in 2005) in the last decade. It seemed liked like from 1998-2001, there were two off-the-court incidents a month. I'll take the hockey team blowing a series on the road over a hoops team wrestling in the median of a road any day. Actually, may I get neither...

he was wearing black trunks when he was seen jumping in, but he emerged naked? Smooth move.
"No officer, I wasn't wearing any black trunks during my swim. But I did see several other swimmers with black trunks while I was out there. Why don't you talk to one of them."
Setting up reasonable doubt. Not!!!!

I think what you said about results is telling, Brian. You can tell the coaches that are most interested in their players as people by their reactions to adversity. With Ellerbe, it was only cut the guy from the team if it could get me into trouble. With Rodriguez, it's if someone has problems that they need to work out before football, than they can't be on the team. With that said, certain people draw conclusions (cough, freep, cough) without remembering that they're publicly damaging human beings. Why can't we be more responsible in helping extend help to players' that need it instead of punishing them for mistakes they've made most often because of the setting they are in? I'm just sick of the endless labeling....
Good stuff as usual Brian.

I remember Ingerson having some mental health issues back to when he was still in high school. Its a shame that he never was able to get the help he needed. I wonder if any of the schools including Michigan ever had people really try to treat him or they just used him for his bball ability and when it didn't work out, they just dismissed him. Very sad.